Nangarhar locals learn blacksmithing techniques

News: Nangarhar locals learn blacksmithing techniques

4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division

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Sgt. Elizabeth Raney

U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Richard Coplin inspects Abdul Ghafour’s work during a blacksmithing class at Forward Operating Base Finley-Shields, Sept. 27, 2012. Coplin, a Bonne Terre, Mo., native, is an Agricultural Specialist with the Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team and is teaching local Afghans the art of blacksmithing. Ghafour is taking the class to increase his knowledge of blacksmithing so he can become a master trainer to teach others about the craft.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FINLEY-SHIELDS, Afghanistan - The loud sound of metal clanging against metal and the smell of burning charcoal capture the attention of someone passing by an otherwise hidden location at Forward Operating Base Finley-Shields.

The tiny space snuggled between two connexes, with scraps of iron lying around a small, hand-welded forge, is home to a little blacksmithing area run by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Richard Coplin, a Bonne Terre, Mo. native.

Coplin, who joined the Army National Guard in 1979, is an agricultural specialist with the Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team in eastern Afghanistan, and is teaching local Afghans the art of blacksmithing, in hopes that they will spread their knowledge to others interested in the trade.

“The whole backdrop to the blacksmithing is that maybe a farmer, perhaps, way out in the district somewhere, cannot afford to … have a local blacksmith perform that work or service for them,” Coplin explained. “Maybe they don’t have transportation, but if they can come, at least long enough to learn the basic techniques of blacksmithing. They can stay on the farm, make those repairs, [and] keep that farm activity going at a very minimal cost to them.”

At this moment, Coplin’s lone student is a local Afghan man named Abdul Ghafour, who is an iron worker in the city of Jalalabad.

“Ghafour is going to be the master trainer,” Coplin explained. “He’s coming through our blacksmith school here to verify his qualifications to teach anyone interested in blacksmithing skills.”

“He has a significant amount of iron working skills,” he continued. “[What] he’s learning here is the seven basic blacksmith techniques: how to shape, form, forge, weld, bend, scroll and twist. That will give him a capacity to build other projects in a graceful, functional manner.”

A friend informed Ghafour of the training, he said, and he was happy to come to the base to learn.

“After the training, I will be the master blacksmith to train the other students and teach them the new techniques which I am learning here,” Ghafour said.

The skill set Ghafour will acquire to allow him to teach others are known as the seven basic blacksmith techniques, explained Coplin.

“The basics themselves are very easy to learn and understand and so you can learn them in about a day’s time,” he explained.

“Mastering them would probably require several weeks, if you were going to stay right at the forge and anvil and work every day. They’re not complicated by design. What they are, it’s an exact art that you have to be very exact in your hammer blows and your bending and your scrolling, everything is very precise.”

With 25 years of blacksmithing experience, ranging from basic iron working to highly professional forging, Coplin is fully qualified to teach the Afghans about this craft.

“I’ve done industrial work, I’ve made tools for the Army, rendezvous … Civil War reenactments, farming, gardening, home, almost any facet of blacksmithing, I’ve done for years,” he said.

That experience, along with his knowledge of farming and carpentry, and his two previous tours to Afghanistan, made Coplin an obvious choice for the current mission.

“[I’ve] done a lot of the traditional type farming that’s seen here in Afghanistan, which gives me an understanding of how to relate to them and how to better coordinate projects for them,” he explained.

His student sees this training experience as an opportunity to help those who have no job and no skills.

“We are not familiar with the modern techniques because we do not have factories or all of the equipment we should be using for blacksmithing,” said Ghafour. “Without this training to learn, it would be very difficult for us to train the beginners.”

Any Afghan who is interested can join the training, Coplin said.

“Whether they’re on the FOB here, or whether they’re Afghans from the local community, we’re more than happy to allow them to come in and work here, develop a skill, develop that interest they already have,” he said.

Coplin is trying to get news of the training out into the villages and will train as many people who show up for the training.

“In the future we plan on advertising in a local agricultural newsletter that’s just recently come out,” he said. “They advertise a lot of the events and activities that are going on in the agricultural community. People who have the capabilities to read that and pass the word along, well, the word will get out there … easily. We think that’s going to happen very quickly.”

If the ones who come for training are willing to continue learning and teaching others, Coplin said, they will advance very rapidly and will become building blocks for a more stable Afghanistan.

“Support them, because you’re helping some other human being improve their life and that’s one thing we’re here for, specifically, is for each other,” he said. “As long as we’re here for each other, the right thing moves forward.”